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Zoya PixieDust Collection Swatches!

Sunday, February 17

press sample

Yay! Zoya PixieDust Collection swatches! This collection has been one of the most highly anticipated in a long time. It consists of six matte, textured, sugary, sparkly polishes. I love this trend in nail polish. It’s super snazzy, yet there are a few in here I can still wear to work. And congrats to the "We Love Our Readers" Giveaway winner! She'll have her own PixieDust Collection very soon!

I didn’t use a basecoat or topcoat for these swatches per Zoya’s instructions. I found application to be a little tricky – it requires an adjustment to how I’m used to applying dense glitters. (See my thoughts on that at the end of this post). Also, you won’t reach full sparkliness until the polish is completely dry. I waited about 15 minutes after the last coat before I took these pics. I'm not gonna lie...these were tough to capture on "film". Even though my blog jumps around, I've linked the full-sized versions to each photo - so click to enlarge. Without further ado...

Vespa: (3 coats) a soft mint (and a touch warmer than my pics show). Dare I say this is office-worthy?

Nyx: (3 coats) a pretty periwinkle; more lavender than blue and very sugary.

Dahlia: (2 coats) a dark charcoal gray/black with silver sparkle. This looked like diamonds in the rough! My pic looks almost artificial - but seriously, it's like diamond dust in real life. My camera was majorly confused.

Godiva: (2 coats) a soft nude. For me, this is mannequin hands with sparkle. Definitely work-worthy. I love that Zoya went this route with one of these polishes. Smart move, in my opinion.

Chyna: (2 coats)a dazzling, cool red. This one was the hardest to apply. To get it to work (after 3 tries), I had very little polish on my brush. If the coats are too thick, you end up with a semi-shiny, orange peel texture instead. It was worth it though. This one turned out to be my favorite. Waaaay sparklier in person. In the lights of my kitchen...gorge!

London: (3 coats) a warm, medium gray. Zoya describes it as "fog gray". I'm a sucker for gray, so this was a shoe-in for me.

My take on application…

As I said, application is different than I’m used to. Typically with dense glitters, I use thicker coats…my goal is to suspend the glitter in the base for a shiny smooth finish. With PixieDust, you want to reveal the glitter instead. So the thinner the coats the better. This will allow the glitter to “stick out” from the base, which gives it that textured finish. Likewise, don’t “hover” the brush and polish with a light hand to get coverage. Really pull the brush over the nail. Just don't overwork it or you'll have pixie dust bald spots. You may need more coats, but the finished product is better. I don’t know if that explanation is technically correct…but it worked for me.

Even though I found these a little harder to apply to get the intended finished product, I'm still in love. Godiva will be on my digits tomorrow (office is closed today - woot!) and I'll sport Chyna my next night out. So what do you think? Do you have them yet?